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He will be missed, I had a chance to meet him, great bloke.
Tony Sale, the leader of the project to rebuild the code-breaking Colossus computer, has died at the age of 80. Sale and his wife Margaret were part of the team which, in 1991, undertook the campaign to save Bletchley Park, the site where World War II code-breakers worked to crack the German High Command's communications. Two …
Like a lot of people here I had the privelidge of meeting him and discussing the Colossus rebuild about 5 years ago. I took a party of BTEC IT students to BP to see the machine and Tony gave a superb talk and demo. He also enjoyed a quick challenge when asked by a student how fast the machine was compared to a modern computer and between us we managed to figure that the machine was running at about 0.25 hz!
Tony Sale, a great bloke! I don't know if he indulged or not but I will raise a pint to his name.
Andrew
But many of Hitler's 'poor' decisions were the result of allied deception, which was constructed using all the decrypt evidence. And the Fish decrypts from Colossus were vital to that.
Hitler led the Germans into a terrible mess, which made him the worst person to lead an escape. Leadership is about leadership. Of course that's a tautology but we often think that it is primarily about decisions. We have an example in recent UK history.
Echoing Adam's comment, I also enjoyed the privilege of meeting Tony six years ago and I found his enthusiasm highly infectious. His spirit of tenacity, curiosity, and persistence belied the fact that he was well into his seventies. Whilst I am saddened at his passing, I am grateful to you for recognising his many achievements and publishing this piece El Reg. I am sure others will feel the same way.
He let me and my friend behind the back of Collossus to take some phots of the machine in infrared. (looked way cool)
Was chatting to hime for a couple of hours sat in the back about the machine.
and yes that machine chucks out some heat.
Hope bletchly dedicate the machine to his memory :-0
If I can add to the paean of praise, he was also 'Q' - or, at least, Principal Scientific Officer at MI5*.
I trust there are folk at BP who can keep Colossus running, but what will we do when the valves eventually run out? Better go and see it working while you still can!
* Yes Bond was at MI6, but still ..
I was lucky enough to meet him on several occasions, immensely enthusiastic about all aspects of engineering, one of my favourite memories was after myself and a few friends had gone down to BP and watched Tony run a demo of Colossus, at the end he was shaking the tin for money as he always did. I went to put £10 in and accidentally pulled out a £50.
Before I even realised, and moving far faster than a man of his years should be capable of there was a sudden "Here, let me help you with that" and the £50 was swiftly swiped, folded and put into the tin.
I count myself lucky he didn't decide to pick me up by my ankles and shake any loose change from me :)